September 17, 2005

To The Barricades!

How do we provide assistance to the students in New Orleans displaced by the hurricane? This dispute noted in the NY Times strikes me as a very big deal:

Over all, more than 372,000 schoolchildren were displaced by the
storm and are now enrolled in schools as far from the Gulf Coast as
California and New England. The total includes about 61,000 who
attended private schools in Louisiana, 50,000 of them in Roman Catholic
schools.

Under the plan, children in public and private schools would be
regarded equally for aid purposes, with a spending cap of $7,500 per
student.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, the ranking
member of the Senate education committee, said in a statement that he
applauded President Bush's efforts to serve the educational needs of
displaced children. "But I am extremely disappointed that he has
proposed providing this relief using such a politically charged
approach," Mr. Kennedy added. "This is not the time for a partisan
debate on vouchers."

Craig Orfield, a spokesman for the committee chairman, Senator
Michael B. Enzi, Republican of Wyoming, said Mr. Enzi had not yet
reviewed the department's request. He also said Mr. Enzi "generally
does not favor vouchers."

Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, which
represents 2.7 million public school teachers and has steadfastly
opposed voucher programs, said, "Vouchers are a flawed and divisive
approach that undermines public education."

Mr. Weaver's counterpart at the American Federation of Teachers,
Edward J. McElroy, said, "We do not believe that the voucher plan in
the Department of Education's proposal is the right way to provide that
assistance."

Karen Ristau, president of the National Catholic Educational
Association, who favors vouchers, said she was "quite pleased" that the
administration proposal included aid for children not in public schools.

"This is a way to help all children who have been displaced," Ms.
Ristau said. "It also helps Catholic schools that are taking children
in. Some are stretched as far as they can go, and this can alleviate
some of the stress they are experiencing.

"But long term," she added, "this gives us a good idea of how this would work, like a national experiment."

So Kennedy's position seems to be that the Federal disaster relief is only appropriate for public school kids.

Will there be Federal assistance to rebuild privately owned homes? Private businesses? Churches?

Just wondering. I am surprised that the Senator considers this an appropriate time and these the appropriate circumstances for a partisan debate on vouchers.

MORE: OK. let's drop the pretence that I fully grasp either the Bush proposal or Kennedy's alternative. However, as I read it, Bush is proposing that all displaced students receive the equivalent of a voucher good for either a public or private school.

The Kennedy alternative is not clear. Presumably, he supports Federal assistance to put the 311,000 public school students in different public schools.

But how about the 50,000 Catholic school kids, and the 11,00 private school kids? Let's be reasonable and guess that Kennedy supports aid for them, as long as they relocate to a public school. That seems fair, yet politically charged - one might think that families that have always had their children in Catholic schools are entitled to hurricane relief, too.

A superficially obvious (yet daft) compromise suggests itself: Federal support for public schools for the 311,000 public school kids; Federal support for the 50,000 Catholic school students in new public or Catholic schools (their choice); and Federal support for the 11,000 private school students in new private or public schhools (again, their choice).

Listening Kennedy explain why the 311,000 students who chose the public schools of New Orleans cannot make a new choice will be interesting, but I know his backers demand it.

And listening to Dems explain that, in the context of the billions we are pitching into hurricane relief, we cannot afford to allow Catholic or private school students from New Orleans to make a similar choice in a new city will also be interesting.

Comments

The Democrats are going to complain about EVERYTHING. The whining started when Bush waived the wage standards under (don't remember the name). The whining will cover everything that Bush has done or will do that enables a faster, more efficient rebuilding and relief process.

Remember the complaints from the Dems about those firemen who were required to go through sensitivity training before FEMA allowed them into the city?

Multiply that times 100 and you have the red tape of regulations and processess that will hinder the rebuilding and end up costing so much more.

But why let political correctness ruin a good rebuilding effort.

The Democrats can't even manage their own party. But they'll sure try to manage the recovery from the worst disaster America has seen in a century.

Upon further reflection - my guess is that Kennedy's position is that *all* the kids should get aid allowing them into public schools, which would address thr equal protection question.

And one obvious compromise would be to (a) let the 11,000 private non-Catholic school kids get aid for any school; (b) let the 50,000 Catholic school kids get aid for any Catholic or public school; and (c) require all the public school kids to choose a new public school.

That strikes me as absurd, and maybe even more absurd than Kennedy's idea that they all must go to public school if they want aid.

Fortunately, we've got no problem financially although my brother (private consultant to LA Dept of Education) and his wife (teacher) are out of jobs probably until the end of the year. But they're okay financially too.

A few other family members are scattered here and there but are okay as well, at least physically. Most have been helped out by just ordinary folks - although they're not really ordinary folks, if you know what I mean.

Lots of real good people in this country. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

The only problem with the school voucher idea - because really, the kids need to get into school, and it doesn't matter where at this point- is the very sensible suspicion that the Goopers are exploiting this tragedy, as they did 9/11, in a coldblooded attempt to get their agenda thrust upon the American people, bypassing the lawful process of doing so.

For example, we have this incredibly shameful story, Looking for a Corpse to Make a Case :Federal troops aren't the only ones looking for bodies on the Gulf Coast. On Sept. 9, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions called his old law professor Harold Apolinsky, co-author of Sessions' legislation repealing the federal estate tax, which was encountering sudden resistance on the Hill. Sessions had an idea to revitalize their cause, which he left on Apolinsky's voice mail: "[Arizona Sen.] Jon Kyl and I were talking about the estate tax. If we knew anybody that owned a business that lost life in the storm, that would be something we could push back with."

If legislative ambulance chasing looks like a desperate measure, for the backers of repealing the estate tax, these are desperate times. Just three weeks ago, their long-sought goal of repeal seemed within reach, but Katrina dashed their hopes when Republican leaders put off an expected vote. After hearing from Sessions, Apolinsky, an estate tax lawyer who says his firm includes three multi-billionaires among its clients, mobilized the American Family Business Institute, a Washington-based group devoted to estate tax repeal. They reached out to members along the Gulf Coast to hunt for the dead.

It's been hard. Only a tiny percentage of people are affected by the estate tax—in 2001 only 534 Alabamans were subject to it. And for Hill backers of repeal, that's only part of the problem. Last year, the tax brought in $24.8 billion to the federal government. With Katrina's cost soaring, estate tax opponents need to find a way to make up the potential lost income. For now, getting repeal back on the agenda may depend on Apolinsky and his team of estate-sniffing sleuths, who are searching Internet obituaries among other places. Has he found any victims of both the hurricane and the estate tax? "Not yet," Apolinsky says. "But I'm still looking."

So the Senator from one of the Katrina ravaged states is using his power....to hunt for a corpse valued over $2.5 million, so he can use it as a club to push through repeal of the Paris Hilton Tax....at a time when his president just promised at least $200 bill in federal dollars to rebuild the region.

It is wise to distrust this party, using their unchecked power to once again exploit America's tragedy. It is a weakness to give them an open door of any kind, a weakness America will pay for down the road. Starving the government of the 2.5 billion it would have cost us to properly construct the levees in New Orleans, just yielded us a nice little invoice of $200 billion dollars. Let's not continue to be so foolish.

Vouchers. I don't know a whole lot about them. Let's see, it looks like some sort of plan to have the village fund the rearing of children.

Might it be possible to discuss community? It is obvious that in small groups we function communally, and for common good even over individual good. We are herd critters. But as the groups grow bigger, that impulse to group benefit seems to get lost. Why?
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A liberal may try to claim moral superiority on the basis of a different point of view about property, but that's all it is; Point of View. It's an illusion that it is elevated.
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Given the history of judicial judgement regarding military recruiters on campuses, the vouchers should be free of strings, like appearances of Sen. Kennedy, while the students exercise their 1st and 14th admendment rights.